Job overview

Do you have experience of using mental health services and working as a peer facilitator in Early Intervention services? Would you like to use these experiences to support other people and their families receiving these services?

Can you inspire hope and belief that recovery is possible - empowering our service users to achieve their hopes, dreams and goals?

Are you are willing to share your own experiences with others, if so we are looking to recruit Peer Facilitators with lived experience of using mental health services to join our East Early Intervention team.

Peer Facilitators will receive support and training to enable them to carry out the day-to-day duties of the post and as employees of the Trust, will have full access to our staff health and wellbeing offer, including supervision and other occupational health services.

Personal Qualities ideal for the role:

Having an empathic understanding of a service users’ experience when admitted to a mental health inpatient unit that is supported by the following:

Ability to encourage participation, good communication skills or willingness to develop these

Ability to listen without bias and to objectively see both sides of an issue

Ability to feedback information in a constructive manner

Ability to use lived experience in a positive and appropriate way with an awareness of own personal recovery journey

For more information about the role please contact us using the details provided.

Main duties of the job

Peer support is based on the recognition that there is no better person to support the path towards recovery than someone who has walked the same path as that individual, and could support an individual to develop a career within the NHS.

The Peer Support Facilitator will provide formalised peer support and practical assistance to service users in order for them to regain control over their lives and their own unique recovery process.

The Peer Support Facilitator will come alongside a service user through their recovery journey.

Peer Support Facilitators work as part of our teams and in collaboration with other colleagues within the team.

Peer Support Facilitators engage with service users to show empathy, share experience, inspire hope and promote recovery with the aim of assisting service users to gain and maintain independence in the community. 

The role will include 1:1 and group work and Peer Support Facilitators will support service users in developing pre-vocational skills. Pre-vocational interventions will be delivered by the Peer Support Facilitator and these will support service users to increase their confidence and work ability, develop a daily routine and engage in other opportunities that will assist with their recovery.

Peer support Facilitators draw on lived experiences to bring hope and raise aspirations to increase opportunities to access employment support, to those using services. Encourage and inspire a recovery focus amongst team colleagues.   

Working for our organisation

LSCFT values diversity and inclusion, recognising that talent from varied backgrounds creates a flexible, creative, and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from all, regardless of age, disability (including those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion, belief, or sexual orientation.

Our aim is to reflect the communities we serve, so we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups. If you’d like to discuss your application, please ask.

We also welcome individuals with lived experience relevant to the role or service area, as your insight brings authenticity to our services.

LSCFT support flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as term time, part time, compressed hours and flexi-time.